The terminology packet in that filing cabinet had been photocopied so many times the type had started to fuzz at the edges — a copy of a copy of a copy, going back further than anyone left in the building could tell me. It defined "morgue" correctly (that one’s held up), but the section on distributing a story still assumed a wire machine clattering away in the corner of a newsroom, not a byline going up on a website before the reporter’s even back at their desk.
Somewhere between then and now, three different AP Stylebook editions had come and gone, and nobody had touched the packet. Kids were memorizing terms for a version of journalism that stopped existing before their parents were in high school.
See it on Teachers Pay Teachers — $9.60
So I rebuilt it as one connected system instead of a list to memorize: a fifty-slide presentation covering the parts of a news story, the actual types of stories students will report today, and news ethics — each slide with a discussion prompt so there’s something to talk about, not just define. A matching handout for notes. A 51-question test that checks what actually stuck. All three pieces use the same vocabulary, so what you teach is what you assess.
If your terminology unit is still teaching students what a wire service is like it’s 1975, this one’s current.
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